1. Background and Relevant Art
With the increasing availability of merchandise, products, and other items not only locally, but also through a global market, the needs to properly package such materials for shipment and delivery have never been more important. Fortunately, available packaging systems can now be used to produce virtually any style of product packaging from packaging materials such as corrugated cardboard.
Typically, users desire packaging that fits the contained product as precisely as possible. With a more snug fit, the contained item or product not only is less likely to be damaged, but the need for inner packaging is also reduced and possibly eliminated. In particular, when packaging materials such as corrugated cardboard are used to create a box or other packaging design, the materials are creased and folded as near to a right angle possible. Creasing and folding at right angles increases strength characteristics of the packaging materials (essentially exponentially), thereby giving a resulting box a correspondingly increased resistance to damage when stacked.
Many different styles of boxes may be produced to satisfy specified dimensional constraints. Each of the different styles of boxes may have different advantages or disadvantages. For instance, some styles of boxes may be more aesthetically pleasing while others may provide greater protective features. Still other boxes styles may be more rapidly produced and/or assembled, while others may require less material for production, or less material for the assembly, closing, or other manipulation of the box template.